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Underground > Policy & Help >

Barbetiquette and Other Rules Of Thumb

Murray Hamhandler

16:06 / 31.08.02

I don't know if the official FAQ is currently in production, but recent problems in the Comics forum seem to indicate that a thread of this nature is in order. Here, then, are some general rules of thumb to link to when toes get trampled on:

1) When posting in a thread outside of Conversation, stay on topic. W/the exception of some of the fora under the Revolution banner, there is at least a little leeway given as to what constitutes on-topic-ness. Make the attempt to stick at least tangentially to the topic at hand and you will most likely be given the benefit of the doubt.

2) Before starting a new thread, make sure to do a search w/in the forum of your choice for a pre-existing thread pertaining to your topic. This cuts down on needless double threads. Double threads can be fused together, but only by Tom (i.e. the head cheese, the guy that runs the board, who puts a roof over our virtual heads). Let's try to cut down any unnecessary workload on his part, shall we?

2a) If your search comes up empty and you decide to start a new topic, remember: always fill in the summary field. The summary (as is stated on the screen that is displayed when one is starting a new topic) helps to keep the thread on topic. It is displayed whenever a poster replies to the thread. It also has some other strange and mysterious features that I'm not entirely clear on (and that, perhaps, Tom can enlighten us to in this thread). Regardless, Tom wants a summary in each thread. So make sure it's there.

3) If you have something to say to a poster, don't derail a thread to do so. Use the private messaging system. The message box is located at the upper left of the screen. Alternately, you can, w/in a thread, click on the member name of the poster w/whom you would like to have words and send a private message to them by clicking on the appropriate link (you'll know it when you see it) w/in that member's profile.

That's all I can think of right off the top of my head, but feel free to add items as you wish. And let's try not to be too politeness-Nazi about it, if we could. Just general rules that'll keep everyone in the Barbelith good book.

19:38 / 31.08.02

Why the problems with keeping threads 'on-topic'?
If you're participating in one which you feel is straying, does it not just require the minor effort of beginning a post with "Back on-topic..." followed by your on-topic discussion to remedy the situation?

To quote Homer Simpson, "stand-up for yourself pointdexter!"

Matthew Fluxington

23:04 / 31.08.02

D, while I don't disagree with you, I do think you are missing the point of this thread - to make known a code of proper conduct so that we ideally won't have to do what you just suggested.

As I said in another thread, I think that it is very poor etiquette for folks to start threads which are simply asking questions that can easily be answered by doing a minimum of research on a search engine. Everyone who is reading this site has the means and the ways of using Google, Yahoo, et al. Use them! Barbelith is for discussion, not to be your personal oracle.

00:14 / 01.09.02

Fair enough, it's just sometimes a thread that meanders from the original topic can bring forth equally interesting discussion into subject matter which otherwise night go unexplored. That isn't always a bad thing, why lose such worthy freedom to save people from having to draw the thread back to the original topic with a simple, and back to...'. As if that's a major imposition to anyone?

10:07 / 01.09.02

of course if a thread vears off topic into interesting directions there is also the breathtakingly simple option of starting a new topic for that new and interesting direction - one that will hopefully bring new posters interested in the interesting direction who would have otherwise idnored it when it was burried on page 5 of a thread that didn't interest them.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

18:14 / 01.09.02

It doesn't always work like that, however. There are situations where that option will kill a thread more effectively than a digression - or where the new discussion isn't strong enough to support itself, but would work as a sideline discussion in the existing thread.

I'm not entirely comfortable with codifying responses, as I guess everyone here already knows.

Murray Hamhandler

18:29 / 01.09.02

Right. I'm not a big stickler for keeping things strictly on-topic over in Comics. I know that discussion is going to stray from time to time, and that's perfectly cool. But when a thread that is ostensibly about one thing gets completely derailed and becomes about something else altogether, that's the time to start a new thread.

19:41 / 01.09.02

Yeah - but putting forward seventeen out of twenty-three of that thread's posts for deletion seems uncomfortably close to taking the piss...

Murray Hamhandler

20:52 / 01.09.02

That was an unfortunate and, fortunately, pretty unique situation, 'Nesh. The topic had ceased to be about comics at all, let alone the topic at hand. It had degraded into a combination of petty bitching, silly animated GIF's, and posters pointing out things that should've been posted to a thread like this one and then linked (i.e. it became a Conversation thread...). It was a choice between trimming the fat or throwing out the whole cow. There were some worthwhile posts that were actually worth keeping so I chose against the latter. Deleting the thread would've either meant also deleting the posts of those who had made an attempt to stay on topic or making Tom go to the needless trouble of moving those posts into a new thread. I really try to take my moderating duties seriously and I try to do what little I can to keep the board running smoothly. I don't think it was a pisstake at all.

But to keep this thread on topic...yes, moderators sometimes have to do a lot of tedious work and perform tasks that they would really rather not have to. If there is no other impetus for following the rules of thumb presented in this thread, at least think of the moderators. Sweet Jesus, won't someone think of the moderators?!?

Murray Hamhandler

20:56 / 01.09.02

But when a thread that is ostensibly about one thing gets completely derailed and becomes about something else altogether, that's the time to start a new thread.

P.S. And if those posts are not only off-topic but have nothing at all to do w/the forum they're being posted to, they stand a good chance of being moved to a more appropriate location or deleted altogether.

21:23 / 01.09.02

Thread starters. It's been said a hundred times now, but threads should not be started with a one-sentence post. Far too many examples to pick any one out of the pile. The worst offenders? One-sentence thread starters that consist of a URL or link and nothing more. What happens if the link goes down? You've got a thread that's completely meaningless. Example here. Utterly incomprehensible to anyone who doesn't already know what it's about if CNN move the story.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

21:54 / 01.09.02

Or if the poster cocks up the HTML. Cut'n'paste doesn't take that much effort, does it?

Murray Hamhandler

23:23 / 01.09.02

(This is probably necessary again, and this thread is as good a place as any for it...)

Once again, kids, here's your HTML primer!

To post a link:
<a href="http://www.barbelith.com/underground">This</a> is the most awesome website ever.
Appears as: "This is the most awesome website ever."

To post a link that pops up in a new window (recommended for links outside of Barbelith):
Have you seen <a href="http://www.portalofevil.com/" target="_blank">this site</a>?
Appears as: "Have you seen this site?"

To post a link to a specific post w/in Barbelith:
You'll never believe what <a href="http://www.barbelith.com/underground/topic.php?id=8484#post143118">this jerk</a> said.
Appears as: "You'll never believe what this jerk said."

To post an image [NOTE: May not work w/some free web hosts (Geocities, Tripod, etc.). Your best bet is to put your image on an image hosting site (some of which a helpful 'Lither will hopefully post links to in a post somewhere below):
<img src="http://www.zinebook.com/interv/images/clown.jpg" />
Appears as:

For bold text:
I can't believe I ate the <b>whole thing</b>.
Appears as: "I can't believe I ate the whole thing."

For italics:
<i>The Cannonball Run</i> is the finest film in American cinema.
Appears as: "The Cannonball Run is the finest film in American cinema."

Also, there are a lot of special characters that require a special code to be viewed in html, such as the ampersand ( & ), the greater-than and less-than signs ( >, < ), and various foriegn characters. A list of these codes can be found here.

Happy HTML-ing!